That blowback has been the most pronounced and personally directed as on any topic in all those years of writing. I am cast as a selfish, out-of-touch elitist, even as a racist. Whatever I have written or done before, the critics see themselves as the true progressives, and malcontents like me deserve scorn.
My sin has been pushing back against zoning changes designed to take rights from residents, mostly longtime homeowners, and make it easier for developers to build more and larger apartment buildings on sites that heretofore would be less accessible to them.
Proponents of the zoning changes, including Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway and her allies on the Madison City Council, contend that changing zoning limits is imperative to accommodating population growth. And, in their view, so is bus rapid transit, whose fundamental disruption to automobile movement on major arteries is only now becoming fully understood.
The mayor, council, and outspoken advocates for that vision possess the bully pulpit these days, and woe unto skeptics like me … and Paul Soglin, the former longtime mayor.
I spoke with Soglin recently at a retirement party — Rhodes-Conway was there as well — and Soglin said he had drafted an essay framing the issue. I asked him to share it with me.
——
Madison taxpayers have long supported far above average K – 12 spending. Per student spending ranges from $22,633 to $29,827 depending on the spending number used (!) despite long term, disastrous reading results.
——
2018: Madison’s Property Tax Base Growth; $38B+ Federal Taxpayer EMR Subsidy
This topic reminds me of a long ago Madison School Board member who noted that the administrative state uses redistributed federal taxpayer (and borrowed) funds to circumvent local governance. The local BRT scheme was partially funded by federal taxpayers (and borrowing – note the US Debt position)…..